Defying definition since 1999

The Best of The Week

"Four Smash!"

"Fantastic Four: Taco Bell Exclusive Collector Edition" is a comic from around 2009 that was distributed with "kid's meals" at Taco Bell, apparently one of four editions featuring Marvel Super-Heroes and distributed by Taco Bell. A small notice on the lower right of the cover proclaims "Not For Resale", and yet I bought this for fifty cents out of the bins at a local comic store. Hopefully I am not getting into trouble for the crime of trading money for a promotional comic.

Anyway, what goes on in here? This is not a full sized comic, with the main story measuring in at 11 pages. It is a bog standard Fantastic Four story, and is set in an indeterminate time in the Fantastic Four's long continuity. Reed and Susan are eating an anniversary dinner, when a feuding and rough-housing Thing and Human Torch interrupt them. Just as recriminations are about to abound from their ruined dinner, the Hulk attacks, and after futile attempts to fight him, they finally

A coded phrase using the NATO phonetic alphabet that has emerged as a euphemistic political statement. The phrase represents a creative application of standardized communication codes for political expression, especially dissent.


“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt

Hedley Kow is an English folktale recorded by Joseph Jacobs in 1894.

There was once an old woman, who earned a poor living by going errands and such like, for the farmers' wives round about the village where she lived. It wasn't much she earned by it; but with a plate of meat at one house, and a cup of tea at another, she made shift to get on somehow, and always looked as cheerful as if she hadn't a want in the world.

Well, one summer evening as she

News for Noders

April 1: By popular demand, March has been redacted.

April 10: Happy birthday, nuggets!

April 12: Yuri's Night

April 22: Happy Earth Day, fellow earthlings!

April 23: Saint George's Day.

April 24: Happy birthday, Rancid_Pickle!

April 30: Walpurgis Night.

If you have something to add to the monthly news, /msg Tem42.

February 1: Brevity Quest 2025 begins!

February 2: Happy birthday Auspice!

February 2: Happy birthday npecom!

February 5: Happy birthday wertperch!

February 8: Happy birthday to panamaus

February 15: Happy birthday Admin to the goo!

February 23: Happy birthday Samuel Pepys!

February 29: Happy birthday Browncoat!


If you have an item for this calendar, /msg Tem42.

January 1: Gregorian New Year.

January 16: National Nothing Day.

January 24: Happy Birthday Silverai_me!

January 26: Happy Birthday Segnbora-t!

January 30: Happy Birthday O-Swirl!


If you have something to add to the monthly news, /msg Tem42.

December 1: Iron Noder ends

December 9: Smallpox eradication day.

December 9: Grace Hopper's birthday.

December 12: Happy birthday to horacetheclown!

December 21: Winter solstice arrives 10:27 PM, EST.

December 23: Happy birthday to Nemosyn!

December 25: Hanukkah begins.

December 25: Merry Christmas!

December 29: HairQuest 2024 ends.


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November 1: The IRON NODER CHALLENGE starts today and runs through December 1. It's never too late to sign up, and all writeups get rewards.

November 1: Happy Birthday Zephronias!

November 5: Bonfire Night in the UK.

November 11: Veterans Day in the US.

November 13: Everything2's Birthday.

November 27: Happy Birthday Estelore!

November 28: Thanksgiving in the US.

November 28: HairQuest 2024 begins!

If you have an item for this calendar, /msg Tem42.